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• Do you want to provide your users with industry-standard navigation controls and icons
that they can use without having to think about it too hard, or do you want to create
custom controls that provide a more unique experience?
• Do you plan to deliver the same content on the Web? If so, what (if anything) should
differentiate the Web version of the content from the version delivered on handheld
devices? If there are no meaningful differences between the presentation of content on
your Web site and the presentation of that content on a handheld device, you may want
to consider whether you need an app experience at all.
• Do you need to publish in multiple formats, or only in an app presentation? Are you
porting content from another format? Can you do a single-source approach, at least to
generate the initial version of a layout that you can then customize for release as an app
issue?
For more information about the formats discussed here, see "Hardware, operating systems,
and formats."
Assessing your customers' needs
It's probably safe to assume that you want your customers to have a positive experience
with your content. To make sure this happens, consider questions such as the following:
• Do your customers want to be able to change the point size of the text? If so, consider a
format that includes a reflow view.
• Will your consumers be able to download your content when they want to? For example,
if you want to download an app from the Apple App Store over 3G, that app must be less
than 50MB in size. If you want to make sure such an app is downloadable over 3G, consider
a lighter-weight format such as ePub, or try to minimize the size of any multimedia assets
you include in your apps.
• How quickly will your customers want to be able to download your content? Even on an
unrestricted network, you might want to think about keeping the size of your files as small
as possible, in order to prevent your customers from becoming frustrated with the wait.
• In what languages do your customers want to read your content? If you want to distribute
content in multiple languages, you should make sure that the format and device you
choose support those languages. For example, some East Asian and Eastern European
languages use characters that are not available in many Western fonts, and some languages
are read in different directions than Western languages. The ePub format supports East
Asian and Eastern European languages on some devices, but it may not support them on
all devices. If you want to use the Blio eBook format, or when creating content using App
Studio, you must use only the layout view, because special characters may not display
correctly in reflow view.
• Do you expect your customers to have an Internet connection when they're consuming
the content? If so, you should make sure your content behaves gracefully when customers
don't have access to a network. If you create issues of content in App Studio, you can
DIGITAL PUBLISHING WITH QUARKXPRESS 9 | 7
DEFINING YOUR GOALS AND LIMITATIONS